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In this ninth month, the Romans used to pray for health. 4.126 On the eighth day before the Ides of September, Eudoxus notes that Pegasus sets and that Zephyrus or Argestes blows. 4.127 We know the worm that grows on the cabbage, which is called a caterpillar. This, when the cabbage dries up in the spring, is wont to change into a winged worm like an ant, but somewhat larger, with white, triangular wings holding it up, and it flits about the gardens with a low and easily caught flight; it happens that such a worm is called a psyche. 4.128 Eighteen days before the Kalends of October, Dositheus notes that Arcturus rises. Twelve days before the Kalends of October, Caesar says the swallows depart. 4.129 .... of Nicomedes the tyrant of Bithynia. 4.130 That when fire is in excess a fever occurs, an ephemeral fever from air, a tertian from water, a quartan from earth. A shiver is wont to precede these. For whenever by cold—since this is a property of water and earth—the aforesaid humors are thickened, then, being carried through the pores, they are unable to expel the denser ones, but falling upon their seats, cause a collision and pressure, until, being urged on by fire, they are cut up and dispersed, which necessarily produces a certain agitation and shaking, which passion is called trembling and cold. 4.131 That after conquering the Africans, the Romans brought the beasts from there to Rome and killed them on the sand, so that not even the beasts from that country would remain unsubdued. 4.132 That Pompey the Great set up the stele of Tyche that stands in Byzantium; for there, having shut up Mithridates with the Goths and having scattered them, he took Byzantium. And the epigram on the base of the column in Latin letters testifies to this, which declares the following: To Tyche the Restorer on account of the vanquished Goths. The place later became a tavern. The Goths are Getae. 4.133 ... but the common people call it a piglet. 4.134 And the oracle recommends drinking milk throughout the whole month of September for the sake of health. 4.135 October. The Macedonians have October as their first month, but the Romans as the eighth from the spring, whence they also name it October instead of eighth. It was formerly called Sementilius from the sowing—for so the Romans call the sowing. On the Kalends of October, the priests decreed to the people that one should not pay attention to dreams because of the phantasms from the moist swelling of the autumn fruits; but from the Auxiphotia, that is January, one should pay the greatest attention according to the opinion of Herophilus, who judged dreams to be divinely sent, but Democritus according to the appearances of images. On the Kalends of October, Varro says the Pleiades rise in the east. It was also the custom for the Romans to eat leeks for the whole month, from a certain ancient tradition, for the avoidance of the disease of arthritis. 4.136 Six days before the Nones of October, Eudoxus supposes that there will be rain in the evening. 4.137 And in the seeds cast into the earth there was a certain power, which the sun, going about the lower hemisphere, draws up at the winter solstice. Kore is the seed-bearing power, and Pluto is the sun beneath the earth, who is said to seize Kore, whom Demeter seeks while she is hidden under the earth. They tell the myth of the seizure of Kore in Aetna in Sicily; for there it is said that the seed of grain was first cast. 4.138 On the fifth of the month of October, the regeonarchs and sebastophors

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κατὰ τὸν ἔννατον μῆνα τοῦτον περὶ ὑγείας ηὔχοντο οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι. 4.126 Τῇ πρὸ ὀκτὼ Εἰδῶν Σεπτεμβρίων Εὔδοξος τὸν ἵππον δύεσθαι καὶ ζέφυρον ἢ ἀργέστην πνεῖν σημειοῦται. 4.127 Ἴσμεν τῇ κράμβῃ ἐμφυόμενον σκώληκα κάμπην ὀνομαζόμενον. οὗτος, ἀποξηραινομένης τῷ ἔαρι τῆς κράμβης, εἰς σκώληκα πτερωτὸν ὡσὰν μύρμηκα, καὶ μείζονά πως, πέφυκε μεταβάλλεσθαι, πτερύγων λευκῶν τριγώνων ἀνεχουσῶν αὐτόν, καὶ περιΐπταται τοῖς κήποις χαμαιζήλῳ καὶ εὐαλώτῳ τῇ πτήσει· ψυχὴν δέ που τὸν τοιοῦτον σκώληκα καλεῖσθαι συμβαίνει. 4.128 Πρὸ δέκα ὀκτὼ Καλενδῶν Ὀκτωβρίων ὁ ∆οσίθεος τὸν ἀρκτοῦρον ἀνίσχειν σημειοῦται. τῇ πρὸ δεκαδύο Καλενδῶν Ὀκτωβρίων ὁ Καῖσαρ τὰς χελιδόνας ἐκδημεῖν λέγει. 4.129 .... Νικομήδους τοῦ Βιθυνίας τυράννου. 4.130 Ὅτι πλεονάσαντος μὲν πυρὸς πυρετὸς γίνεται, ἀφημερινὸς δὲ ἀέρος, τριταῖος δὲ ὕδατος, τεταρταῖος δὲ γῆς. φιλεῖ δὲ τούτων προκατάρχειν τὸ ῥῖγος. ὁπόταν γὰρ ὑπὸ τοῦ ψυχροῦ-ἐπειδὴ τοῦτο ἴδιον ὕδατός τε καὶ γῆς-τὰ εἰρημένα ὑγρὰ παχυνθῇ, τηνικαῦτα φερόμενα διὰ τῶν ἀραιωμάτων ἐξωθεῖν μὲν οὐ δύναται τὰ πυκνότερα, ἐμπεσόντα δὲ ταῖς τούτων ἕδραις σύνωσιν καὶ θλίψιν ἐργάζεται, μέχρις ἂν ὑπὸ τοῦ πυρὸς ἐπειγόμενα τμηθέντα διαχυθῇ, ὅπερ ἀναγ καίως κλόνον τινὰ καὶ σεισμὸν ἐμποιεῖ, ὃ δὴ πάθος τρόμος καὶ ψῦχος ὀνομάζεται. 4.131 Ὅτι Ῥωμαῖοι μετὰ τὸ νικῆσαι τοὺς Ἄφρουςκαὶ τὰ ἐκεῖθεν θηρία ἐπὶ τῆς Ῥώμης ἐκόμιζον καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς ἄμμου ἐφόνευον, ὡς μηδὲ τὰ ἐκ τῆς χώρας ἐκείνης θηρία ἀδούλωτα μείνῃ. 4.132 Ὅτι τὴν ἱσταμένην ἐν τῷ Βυζαντίῳ στήλην τῆς Τύχης Πομπήϊος ὁ Μέγας ἔστησεν· ἐνταῦθα γὰρ τὸν Μιθριδάτην συγκλείσας μετὰ τῶν Γότθων καὶ τούτους διασκεδάσας τὸ Βυζάντιον εἷλε. καὶ μαρτυρεῖ τὸ ἐπὶ τῆς σπείρας τοῦ κίονος ἐπίγραμμα Λατίνοις γράμμασιν, ὃ δηλοῖ τάδε· Τῇ Τύχῃ τῇ ἐπανασωστικῇ διὰ τοὺς νικηθέντας Γότθους. ὁ δὲ τόπος ὕστερον καπηλεῖον ἐγένετο. οἱ Γότθοι Γέται. 4.133 ... οἱ δὲ ἰδιῶται δέλφακά φασιν αὐτόν. 4.134 Τὸ δὲ λόγιον ἀνὰ πάντα τὸν Σεπτέμβριον μῆνα γαλακτοποτεῖν ὑπὲρ ὑγείας παρεγγυᾷ. 4.135 Ὀκτώβριος. Τὸν Ὀκτώβριον Μακεδόνιοι πρῶτον ἔχουσι μῆνα, οἱ δὲ Ῥωμαῖοι ὄγδοον ἀπὸ τοῦ ἔαρος, ὅθεν καὶ Ὀκτώβριον αὐτὸν ὀνομάζουσιν ἀντὶ τοῦ ὄγδοον. Σεμεντίλιος δὲ οὗτος πρότερον ἐκαλεῖτο ἀπὸ τοῦ σπόρου -οὕτω γὰρ Ῥωμαῖοι τὸν σπόρον καλοῦσι. Καλέν δαις Ὀκτωβρίαις οἱ ἱερεῖς ἐθέσπιζον τῷ δήμῳ, μὴ χρῆναι προσέχειν τοῖς ὀνείροις διὰ τὰς ἐκ τῆς ὑγρᾶς ὀγκώσεως τῶν τοῦ φθινοπώρου καρπῶν φαντασίας· ἀπὸ δὲ τῶν Αὐξιφωτίων ἤγουν τοῦ Ἰανουαρίου ὡς μάλιστα προσέχειν κατὰ τὸ δοκοῦν Ἡροφίλῳ, ὃς καὶ θεοπέμπτους ἐνέκρινε τοὺς ὀνείρους, ὁ δὲ ∆ημόκριτος κατὰ τὰς παραστάσεις τῶν εἰδώλων. Καλένδαις Ὀκτωβρίαις φησὶν ὁ Βάρρων τὰς Πλειάδας ἀπὸ ἀνατολῶν ἀνίσχειν. ἐδόκει δὲ τὸν ὅλον μῆνα πρασοφαγεῖν τοῖς Ῥωμαίοις ἐξ ἀρχαίας τινὸς παραδόσεως πρὸς ἀποφυγὴν ἀρθρίτιδος νόσου. 4.136 Τῇ πρὸ ἓξ Νωνῶν Ὀκτωβρίων Εὔδοξος περὶ τὴν ἑσπέραν βροχὴν ἔσεσθαι ὑπολαμβάνει. 4.137 Ἐπὶ δὲ τῶν εἰς γῆν βαλλομένων σπερμάτων ἦν τις δύναμις, ἣν ὁ ἥλιος περὶ τὸ κάτω ἡμισφαίριον ἰὼν ἕλκει κατὰ τὰς χειμερίους τροπάς, Κόρη μὲν ἡ δύναμις ἡ σπερματοῦχος, Πλούτων δὲ ὁ ὑπὸ γῆν ἥλιος, ὃς ἁρπάζειν λέγεται τὴν Κόρην, ἣν ζητεῖ ἡ ∆ημήτηρ κρυπτομένην ὑπὸ γῆς. ἐν Αἴτνῃ δὲ τῆς Σικελίας τὴν ἁρπαγὴν μυθολογοῦσι τῆς Κόρης· ἐκεῖ γὰρ λέγεται πρῶτον σίτου σπέρμα καταβληθῆναι. 4.138 Τῇ πέμπτῃ τοῦ Ὀκτωβρίου μηνὸς οἱ ῥεγεωνάρχαι καὶ σεβαστοφόροι